Immortal Sea Creature Resets Lifespan Like A Video Game Character

Immortal jellyfish are strange and fascinating creatures, native to tropical waters. While they age in a straightforward process from tiny, fingernail-sized larvae into sprawling adults with tentacles reminiscent of Medusa’s snaky waves, their life cycle is quite unlike any other creature on Earth.

At times when other jellyfish would be stressed enough to shuffle off their mortal coil, the immortal jellyfish simply reverses its life cycle, shrinks back into its larval state, and births a set of mini selves, essentially restarting their lives from scratch.

This process has led researchers to make many pop culture analogies about the immortal jellyfish. Some have said these life cycles are reminiscent of video game characters, dying to foes only to quickly respawn and do it all over again until the level is completed. Others have likened the turritopsis dohrnii to the protagonists from Groundhog Day or The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, citing their ability to relive the same day over and over, or age in reverse.

As far as researchers can tell, the immortal jellyfish is the one and only animal on our little blue marble capable of performing such a feat. This has left many scientific minds to wonder about the practical applications of studying jellyfish anatomy for the purpose of developing our own conditional immortality or anti-aging, though there’s been no luck on that front thus far. In fact, a 2022 study was conducted to map out the entire DNA sequence of the immortal jellyfish gene-by-gene, utilizing the latest and greatest in bioinformatics tools.

While the study helped us to learn a great deal about the anatomy and physiology of the immortal jellyfish, it also demonstrated just how functionally impossible it would be to convert this immortal capability into any form usable by a human being. One of the key discoveries yielded by this study was the process of dedifferentiation, which sees the jellyfish unraveling their chromosomes in order to turn back the clock on their forward aging cycle.

While the turritopsis dohrnii is referred to as being biologically immortal, it’s also important to note that the creatures aren’t literally incapable of dying. In fact, they’re surprisingly easy to kill, as they contain very few biological defense measures to prevent them from being hunted by other sea creatures like turtles and whale sharks.

As scientists who study immortal jellyfish are quick to point out, the fascinating sea creatures are worth examining from a biological perspective, though their natural construction leaves them just as vulnerable to an inevitable demise as you or I.

Source: IFLScience